‘Because the FAL support the war in Iraq?’
O’Halloran waited while a girl delivered his coffee to the table. ‘Nothing wrong with anyone supporting our troops in Iraq,’ he said. ‘If the FAL were just doing that they wouldn’t be short of people looking to join. But their policy’s a bit more radical. The FAL exists solely for the purpose of promoting the idea that nothing is more important than the fundamental need to keep America safe by absolutely any means and at absolutely any cost. It doesn’t matter who gets hurt in the process so long as it’s not the US. So what if we couldn’t find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? In case a couple are still lying around somewhere let’s make sure the Iraqis end up being so fucked they’ll never be able to use them. And in case Osama bin Laden is still hiding out in Afghanistan, why not just keep our troops there for another year? If you’re a right-wing redneck who believes in big sticks and America the Great and America the Strong, get yourself a gun, saddle up and join the FAL. They could probably use someone like you.’
‘Or someone like Jüri Yegorov,’ Coburn said.
‘You haven’t heard the good bit yet. Shriver’s last posting was to Kuwait in 1991 — after the Iraqi forces had set fire to all the oil wells there. One day in June while he was visiting a place on the coast called Minā al Ahmadi, he was driving past one of the wellheads that had already been capped when it blew its top and reignited. Shriver was OK, but only because of a US Marine who managed to get him out of the way in time. Guess who that was?’
‘Yegorov.’
‘Right. Shriver’s the official face of the FAL. My guess is that Yegorov does his dirty work for him. The first time you came across good old Jüri, he was driving a truck in Bangladesh. A few weeks later there he is on board the Pishan waiting for you in the Strait of Malacca. When that didn’t work he arranged the attack on the village where you were staying, and took out some insurance by wiring up your fridge in Singapore.’
‘All to keep America safe,’ Coburn said. ‘In case I put two and two together and decided people might like to know how the FAL are going about it?’
‘They’re on a crusade.’ O’Halloran slid a pamphlet across the table. ‘Read that.’
The pamphlet was well presented and printed in colour on expensive paper. Coburn glanced through it before he went back to the beginning and read the introduction:
The Free America League is a privately funded, non-governmental organization dedicated to preserving the principles of Liberty, Freedom of Speech, Freedom from Aggression and Freedom from Terror. Membership is open to all American citizens who wish to protect our society, our culture and celebrate the faith upon which rests the foundations of our great country.
In recent times, successive governments have failed to uphold traditional American values, and have allowed the United States to become impotent in the face of aggression directed against us by countries which are determined to undermine and destroy everything that we as a people hold dear and everything for which our forebears laboured to establish for us.
Despite the horrors of September 11, our elected representatives continue to adopt policies of appeasement in circumstances where nothing but the sternest measures can guarantee our children a future free from the harm our enemies increasingly wish upon us.
Only from a position of military strength can the United States protect itself from foreign governments who have openly declared war on our way of life, on our ideals, our institutions and on our democratic system.
The Free America League will not allow the people of the United States to fall victim to this hate. Nor will the Free America League permit hostile nations to threaten us by developing weapons that can be used against the United States without reason and without warning.
If, like more than 11,000 of your fellow Americans who already support this cause, you would like to become an active member of the FAL, visit www.freeamericaleague.com, or contact the nearest FAL office in your State, details of which are listed on page 6.
Coburn didn’t turn to page 6. He didn’t study the other pages either, most of which were illustrated with before-and-after photographs of the Twin Towers and with shots of fire-crews working outside the blackened wall of the Pentagon.
‘Forgotten the words, have you?’ O’Halloran said.
‘What?’
‘Now you’ve read that you’re supposed to be singing the Star Spangled Banner.’ O’Halloran grinned. ‘Long live America. If you care about your kids, send the FAL a cheque, and they’ll see to it that North Korea gets bombed back to the Stone Age.’
The pamphlet didn’t mention North Korea by name, but it didn’t have to, Coburn thought. The message wasn’t even ambiguous — an outline not just of what the FAL stood for, but a statement of intent that left little to the imagination.
‘If you didn’t know what you’re up against before, you do now,’ O’Halloran said. ‘With that many signed-up members, they’ll have people working inside every government department in Washington.’
‘Including yours.’ Coburn refolded the pamphlet and placed it on O’Halloran’s briefcase. ‘That’s where the leak came from. Someone in your office decided I was making waves.’
‘So what? It’s not illegal to belong to the FAL. If there’s a guy in my department who’s a member, he’ll have no idea what Shriver and his friends are up to. He’ll be the same as all the other members — contributing cash, helping the FAL keep America strong and waving flags when he’s told to. He probably thought Shriver’s publicity machine could use the information in my report about nuclear material on the Rybinsk going to North Korea. Once he heard you were asking questions he’d have passed your name on to the FAL. Why wouldn’t he?’
‘That means you don’t care, does it?’
O’Halloran shrugged. ‘What it means is that you’ve got yourself a problem. At least the US Government pretends to play by the rules. You’ve been dealing with an outfit that doesn’t have any. Carry on the way you’re going and you won’t have to fake your death a second time. Shriver isn’t about to let anyone stop him now. He has enough cash coming in to buy whatever he wants and whoever he wants anywhere in the world. If he finds out you’re still alive and wants to spend another hundred grand getting rid of you, he will.’
‘How much do you know about Shriver?’
‘What do you want to know?’
‘Whereabouts in Oregon is Canyon City?’
‘All I can tell you is that it’s on the same State highway as Shriver’s ranch — somewhere between the Ochoco and Malheur National Forests. Are you any the wiser?’
Coburn shook his head. ‘I will be when I get a map. How big is the ranch?’
‘How would I know?’ O’Halloran drank some of his coffee. ‘Look, if you’ve got some idea of going to have a chat with Shriver, I’d have a real good think about that if I were you.’
‘I already have. Can you do one more thing for me? See what you can find on Canyon City and dig up what you can on the para-military camp you say Shriver’s running.’
‘That’s two things. When do you want it by?’